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Work in Progress

This week, Ive been performing extended tests of this summers major Solaris 10 update from Sun Microsystems—the first to include the much-heralded Zettabyte File System.

Early in my testing, ZFS knack for turning raw disks into bendable, shapeable, all-purpose volumes came in handy.

For example, after installing a bunch of packages from blastwave.org to my systems /opt directory, space ran out on the systems undersized root partition.

I used ZFS to make a new pool on a spare disk, to which I moved the contents of /opt before mounting a new pool as /opt. ZFS solved the immediate problem, and I knew I could rearrange the storage layout later with minimal hassle.

Further reading

Whats more, I was able to carry out most ZFS operations though the Solaris 10 ZFS Web management interface.

Results of these tests are slated to appear in the Oct. 23 issue and at eWEEK.com.

The package also will include evaluations of a few OpenSolaris-based distributions—one of which, Nexentas NexentaOS, interestingly combines the Solaris kernel with the software management system from Ubuntu and Debian.

Finally, Ill be taking stock of the progress of upcoming feature additions to Solaris, including Xen virtualization and Linux application support through Suns BrandZ initiative.

For eWEEK Labs first look at Suns Solaris 10, go to "Solaris 10 shines in early testing" at eweek.com.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis in programming environments and developer tools.